Sandhill Cranes Seen at Dulles Wetlands

Ten people gathered at the Dulles Greenway Wetlands for a February 25 bird walk led by John Denice and Jane Yocom.  The morning started off cold with frozen puddles, but by the end it was a relatively warm 39 degrees and sunny.  At the entrance gate, we were greeted with Eastern Bluebirds. When we walked to the first clearing, we could see the Bald Eagle nest. Although they were not on the nest,  we did see two eagles.  We also saw many Swamp Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds, some Song Sparrows and two Red-shouldered Hawks.  When we got to the pond, we saw ducks including Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Ducks, Wood Ducks, Ruddy Ducks, a Gadwall, Mallards, Black Ducks and American Coots.

However, the highlight of the walk was four Sandhill Cranes on the hill on the other side of the pond who just hung out for a while letting us look at them.  We moved down to Goose Creek and saw a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Brown Creeper, Common Mergansers, and fresh sign of River Otters.  We retraced our steps, and on the way back were lucky enough to see a Ruby-crowned Kinglet and two Hermit Thrushes.  We stopped in the clearing to look at the eagle nest again and saw two eagles at the nest, and two more adults flew over.  Back at the gate Jane kept trying to tally up the birds we’d seen, but so many new birds kept coming by — another Hermit Thrush, Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and more — that it took quite a while to come up with the total of 41 species.

The complete list of birds recorded can be viewed on eBird at: https://ebird.org/checklist/S162910645.